I can see the Andes on the horizon

As I'm sure you all know by now, Brice and I are following up the semester with a month-long grand tour of Bolivia and Peru. Curiosity beckons! We plan to visit all of the big sites, of course: Machu Picchu, lake Titicaca, the Nazca Lines, Chan Chan, and even the Bolivian rain forest. We're also going to see lots of mummies and catacombs, as well as a fair few llamas. And - this is important - I'm going to eat a Guinea pig. Yes, a Guinea pig [pic related]. And I will swim with pink dolphins, soak in hot springs, and go anaconda hunting by moonlight.* I am so freaking excited about our trip, I can barely sit still. Of course, there are also the more worrisome details. Can I pick up my Spanish fast enough? Will I contract some deadly disease? Will we miss our bus and have to spend a night in the streets? I hope so, I hope not, and I really hope not, but I'm excited all the same.

I'm looking for a solid novel to take with me, because as you can imagine the flight is quite long. We're also going to spend a great deal of time on buses and in hostels, so... I was leaning towards Gabriel García Márquez' One Hundred Years of Solitude, and it's still in the running, but all suggestions are welcome. The book should be reasonably long, available in paperback, and have a good sense of humor, language, or intrigue. Of course, all three are always encouraged whatever the combination may be.

Since Internet connections will be a bit sketchy and necessarily limited (logic: will have time to blog on bus / do not have laptop or Internet on bus; will not have time to blog in Internet cafes, will be too busy emailing family and looking up bus schedules. conclusion: will not blog), I'm planning on keeping a hand written journal. Not only will this give me something else to do on the bus, it will give me an excellent memento gratis to look back on when I'm old and boring. Naturally, I'll be taking as many photos as my memory card will allow, but I won't really be able to share those either. So - since I'm going to be back in Warren by mid June - I'll just type out my journal and publish the appropriate photos when I get back.

OK, to be fair, the odds that I will actually type out all of my journal entries is abysmally low. But I'll share the important ones, and paraphrase where necessary. Long story short, you (yes, all 3 of you) will get to see the Peru trip eventually, just not as it unfolds in real time. I may even include a few poems, if I feel compelled to write them (and by compelled, I mean if I just can't stand looking at Brice for another minute).

Well, no matter how exciting all of this is I still have to pass my finals and move out of my apartment this week. Busy, busy, busy. But I guess I have to take things one step at a time. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. It's going to be one hell of a summer, that's for sure.

*Hunting with a camera, but other than that I'm COMPLETELY SERIOUS. How awesome is that?!